Solabusca on 19/8/2006 at 22:20
Posted over on the Chaos Forums:
As an excercise, I'm interested in establishing the 'heirarchy of sins' for a Hammerite, using as a framework provided by the indie-rpg (
http://files.crngames.com/cc/paladin/paladin.html) Paladin, by Clinton R. Nixon. (Available for free as part of a Creative Commons - Share Alike license; CRN does good stuff, check out The Shadow of Yesterday as well!)
Quote:
CodeEvery faith has its set of laws and taboos. You must create a code for the order, listing 3 to 10 laws every member of the order must follow. These laws fall under the ranks of Minor, Major, and Unbreakable. A good number to start play with is 3 Minor Laws, 2 Major Laws, and 1 Unbreakable Law.
An example:
Minor Laws
* A member must base his decisions on wisdom, not feelings.
* A member must never be arrogant.
* A member must never use his abilities for personal gain.
Major Laws
* A member must respect life in all its forms.
* A member must never act out of love, fear, or hate.
Unbreakable Law
* A member must never strike down another fueled by emotion.
As you can see in the example, the crimes do not have to be specific, and they may overlap. (Making decisions based off of feelings is a Minor transgression; acting on strong feelings is Major; while killing someone fueled by emotion is Unbreakable. All three are wrong, but killing someone is much worse than, say, draining their fuel tanks because you think they're a dick.) This sort of overlap is an excellent way to show the core of your order's values.
So... what would the Hammerite tenants be?
Possibles:
* Minor
* Thous shalt not practice deciet, for even the smallest lie is a affront to the Builder.
* Thous shalt not allow sloth to prevent thee from thy duties to the Builder.
* Thou shalt work hard in the name of the Builder and for the betterment of His wards. Thine walls shall be strong, thy work sure.
* Major
* Thou shalt not steal, or willfully destroy the works of the Builder.
* Thou shalt not hold truck with those who turn their backs upon the Builder; they are heretic and must pay penance.
* Unbreakable
* Thou shall not suffer the enemies of the Master Builder to live.
That's some initial thoughts on the matter - please feel free to correct, revise or append to this list.
.j.
metal dawn on 19/8/2006 at 22:38
Very good, I like where it's going.
I have a few suggestions.
Deceit is not a minor rule, in my opinion.
I believe the verse goes...
"The thieves were made to ingest the tongues of their liar brothers."
"Thou shall not suffer the enemies of the Master Builder to live."
Nice work, but "enemies" feels a bit vague. If I may, "defilers" or something similar may a little better.
Oh, and the decrees might sound a little stronger if you were to say "will/wilt."
"Thou shalt not steal, or willfully destroy the works of the Builder."
For "destroy" anyway, there's a possible exception. If a monument to the Builder is defiled, it should not hold the symbols of the Builder any longer. I don't remember where I heard this. (This is only an observation.)
Just some thoughts.
Again, nice work.
themetalian on 19/8/2006 at 22:52
Cool thread. My turn!!! :cheeky: But I could only think of an unbreakable law for the Mechanists....
Unbreakable: Love Karras as thou shalt love your wife. :cheeky: :cheeky:
Selete on 20/8/2006 at 21:16
Lies would DEFINATELY be a big sin for the hammerites. Nothing could be more insidious to those brash, blunt blockheads than illusion and deceit - they are elements of chaos, and destroy the integrity of the thing. Hammerites are builders of structures that they pray will have integrity, and stand.
For example, the parable of the Builder smiting his son for lying about making an error. "Doest thou not know that an error, once made, can be corrected, but a lie lasteth forever on the tongue?"
I believe that whatever their tenants are, mercy has no place in them. The Hammerites would never forgive a sin. So, no confession, just do it right the first time. So you'll get along fine with the Hammers, once you realize that you have to be 100% perfect absolutely all of the time.
I'm not sure how they feel about lust, though. "The Harlot said, 'come tarry a while...' And the preist did tarry."
It seems, from this sentence, that they only believe that sex is sinful because it is not work, but play.
Vigil on 20/8/2006 at 22:40
No, that's just intended as a coy way of referring to sex I think, not meant to emphasise that he was wasting time by doing so. It's not elaborated why the Hammerites would object to fornication so strongly (as the following verses indicate they do) but it's not hard to find parallels in real-life religions about the moral dangers of lust and temptation.
dlw6 on 21/8/2006 at 11:26
Quote Posted by Vigil
It's not elaborated why the Hammerites would object to fornication so strongly (as the following verses indicate they do) but it's not hard to find parallels in real-life religions about the moral dangers of lust and temptation.
True, but note that the punishment for the priest was much more severe than for the harlot as told in that particular passage. From this I conclude that fornication is forbidden to Hammerites, but not as serious a sin for the population at large.
There are several tents against lying, stealing, indecision, and inaction, so I agree that they should be on the list.
Don
Ardesco on 21/8/2006 at 16:23
Quote Posted by themetalian
Unbreakable: Love Karras as thou shalt love your wife. :cheeky: :cheeky:
What about the female Mechanists? It needs to be, "Love Karras as thou shalt love your sop (significant other person). :laff:
Here's my contribution for the Hammers Unbreakable Law:
Thou shalt hammer in the morning
Thou shalt hammer in the evening
Thou shalt hammer all over this land...
LOL!!!
themetalian on 21/8/2006 at 18:46
Quote Posted by Ardesco
Here's my contribution for the Hammers Unbreakable Law:
Thou shalt hammer in the morning
Thou shalt hammer in the evening
Thou shalt hammer all over this land... LOL!!!
:laff: :laff:
Lolll!!! I remeber that one!!! Another funny one is on the "Kidnap" mission:
As the Shaft to the Gear..
"As the Shaft to the Gear.....(can't remember text)
As the Gear to the Cog, I turn for thee...."
I can't remember the poem exactly, but it was hilarious.:laff: Especially with their obsession to use the word "shaft" :ebil: It sounds a bit weird..:erm:
FiveFingerDiscount on 21/8/2006 at 21:24
I've always thought of the Hammers as basically being 17th century Puritans, but with machinery - maybe a cross between Puritans and Victorian mill-owners: repressed, paternalistic, judgemental, etc.
